Diving Deeper into Robotics
First Lego League: Submerged Event

On October 26th, the Excellence Hall of the Decatur County Schools Board of Education buzzed with energy as young robotics engineers, programmers, and enthusiasts gathered for an exhilarating First Lego League (FLL) event. Bainbridge Middle School Teams #66305 Six Gill Sharks and #66302 Blue Fins were joined by teams from various school systems across Southwest Georgia. Students gathered to showcase their creativity, teamwork, and innovation through their remarkable robots.

As teams began to set up their robots on the competition tables, students collaborated about strategy for solving the 15 Ocean Exploration themed missions which are part of the 2024-2025 “Submerged” Season, you could feel the excitement in the air. Whether feeding Krill to a whale, delivering a scuba diver to a coral nursery, finding Kraken’s treasure, capturing an “unknown creature”, or relocating a shark to its habitat, students must build an autonomous robot and program it to journey through the 4 foot by 8 foot field strategically to accomplish as many tasks as possible within the 2:30 minute time limit. Each team shared their robot and mission ideas, coding solutions and strategies and a spirit of grit and determination as they learned together and helped one another despite being competitors.

Students working collaboratively around table with missions from the Submerged Season Students work at the robot table while others gather at the big screen analyzing the robot round Students cheer their robot on as it attempts to rescue the unknown creature during a robot mission

A Spirit of Sharing and Ingenuity

Saturday's event served as a crucial opportunity for new FLL teams to practice running robot rounds, refine their strategies, and learn from one another. This is all part of the Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition that FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) promotes through their CORE VALUES: Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork, and Fun.

“It’s amazing to see how much effort the kids put into their robots,” said Ms Zock from Decatur County Schools. “Each team has its unique approach, and watching them learn from each other is what FLL is all about.” Supported by coaches, parents and mentors, students were hard at work improving their scores throughout the event and discovering new ways to accomplish the same task.

Ms Zock works with students from different teams to introduce new coding strategies and share solutions Students anxiously await the results of newly coded robot run after launching robot

“This is just what our students needed to feel confident before competing in December,” said Coach Elizabeth Hill, who has two rookie 8th grade teams from Bainbridge Middle School that are competing this year. “I can already see so much improvement from one day working together!” Veteran Coach Danielle Jones from Grady County echoed this sentiment as her students were able to add new missions to their list during the day as well.

Dr. Willie Allen works with student at the robot table Danylle Larkin greets students explaining the events of the day

Danyelle Larkin, Eve Cuero, and Julia Kim from GaTECH , as well as Candace Christian and Dr. Willie Allen from Southern Regional Technical College sponsored the event providing resources and food to keep the students going. This is part of a greater initiative to grow the FLL program in southwest Georgia bringing STEM and Computer Science opportunities to the area. SRTC is excited to be hosting the first SWGA regional tournament for these new FLL teams on December 14th at the Thomasville campus. If you are interested in volunteering or getting involved with FLL please contact Dr. Allen wallen@southernregional.edu or Amy Zock azock@dcboe.com for more information.

Decatur County Schools

Diving Deeper into Robotics First Lego League: Submerged Event, October 26